The Union Budget’s healthcare focus has received a thumbs up from the industry with doctors and insurance companies lauding the decision to roll out a health scheme for 10 crore families and a big preventive health push of Rs 1200 crore.
Providing an 11% budgetary leg up, the Union budget allocated Rs 52,800 crore to the health sector, in addition to Rs 1626 crore for Ayush (up from Rs 1429 crore) and Rs 1800 crore to health research (up from Rs 1500 crore). The allocation for National Health Mission stands at Rs 25,000 crore up from Rs 22,000 crore last year. Among the Budget proposals for health are an ambitious National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) to cover over 10 crore poor families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year (estimated to cost Rs 12000 crore when beneficiaries have been fully enrolled), development of health and wellness centres, upgradation of district hospitals into medical colleges so that there is one college in every three Parliamentary constituencies and a Rs 5000 crore allocation for a Rs 500 per month incentive to TB patients.
“The one key takeaway from Union Budget 2018 is clearly the government’s vision of achieving inclusiveness – financial, health and social. And the Finance Minister didn’t leave any stone unturned when it came to ensuring that India stood tall among its counterparts. In terms of health insurance penetration, so far India trailed its counterparts with 2/3 rd of Indians still being devoid of any kind of health insurance cover. Aayushman Bharat – world’s largest health protection scheme – is a big step towards implementing health and financial inclusion and will help drive health insurance penetration while bringing Indians at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) into the insurance fold with a sizeable insurance cover,” said Ashish Mehrotra MD and CEO Max Bupa Health Insurance.
The health protection scheme and the preventive health plan will together form a new Ayushman Bharat programme. “…these two far-reaching initiatives under the Ayushman Bharat will build a New India 2022 and ensure enhanced productivity, well being and avert wage loss and impoverishment. These Schemes will also generate lakhs of jobs, particularly for women. The Government is steadily but surely progressing towards the goal of Universal Health Coverage,” Jaitley said in his speech.
“Healthcare has been one of the focal areas of this year’s budget. The announcement of National Health Protection Scheme that will provide health cover of Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor families is a major step for making healthcare accessible to the downtrodden and marginalized sections of the society. Another laudable move is the allocation of INR 1,200 crore for preventive health care services. As a healthcare company, Lybrate too has been making concerted efforts to raise awareness about preventive health and it is heartening to see the government earmarking a considerable amount towards this…”
Universal Health Coverage is a long pending commitment of the government of India that has not taken off largely because of the dismal allocation on health. “The Government has focused on inclusive measures in the budget , targeting critical areas of agriculture , education, health , power among others. On health insurance, the introduction of Rs. 5 lakh cover for families and increase in medical insurance tax exemption for senior citizens indicate the focus of policy makers to ensure adequate protection against health hazards for India’s populace.” Bhargav Dasgupta MD and CEO ICICI Lombard.
The preventive health push too earned the government substantive praise. Dr Hrishikesh Pai , medical director Bloom IVF Group said: “The budget this year has become the talk of the town and for all the right reasons – be it allocation of more funds under the National Healthcare Programme or the push towards better maternal health through the Ayushman Bharat initiative. Two dozen new government medical colleges and hospitals will be established, and existing district hospitals will be upgraded under the programme, thus ensuring access to better health facilities. Prevention is key to ensuring good health, something that the budget has adequately focused on. Preventive health also becomes important in light of the fact that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are rising today, leading to other conditions such as infertility. Addressing NCDs can help prevent many associated complications.”
India has one of the largest NCD burdens. According to the World Health Organisation, NCDs contribute to around 5.87 million deaths that account for 60 % of all deaths in India. Cardiovascular diseases (coronary heart disease, stroke, and hypertension) contribute to 45% of all NCD deaths followed by chronic respiratory disease (22 %), cancers (12 %) and diabetes (3%).
“Healthcare has been one of the focal areas of this year’s budget. The announcement of National Health Protection Scheme that will provide health cover of Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore poor families is a major step for making healthcare accessible to the downtrodden and marginalized sections of the society. Another laudable move is the allocation of INR 1,200 crore for preventive health care services. As a healthcare company, Lybrate too has been making concerted efforts to raise awareness about preventive health and it is heartening to see the government earmarking a considerable amount towards this. It underlines how important preventive healthcare is in the wake of rising incidence of lifestyle diseases in the country and the burden it creates on people and healthcare infrastructure,” said Saurabh Arora founder and CEO Lybrate..
